Removing nickel or chrome plating

Some time back I bought an original flintlock that had been converted to percussion and later the lockplate and percussion hammer had been ether nickle plated or chrome plated. How is the easiest and least destructive way of removing the plating.

Find a plating company and have them electrically remove the plating. They can get it right off without damaging any of the steel. When they replate a gun, they have to completely remove all the old plating before putting on new, so it's not a big deal for them.

I cannot, however, recommend a particular plating outfit. It has been so long since I have been "into" modern guns, I don't know any of the suppliers, services, etc. anymore.

If it's nickel, you can strip it yourself with nickel stripper from Brownells or Caswell plating. Chrome however, is electroplated on and needs to be de-plated. That requires specialty equipment.

Take a close look at the plating in the sunlight. If it has a slight blue tint to it, it's chrome. If it has a slight yellow tint, it's nickel.

I do nickel and chrome plating both. If I need to strip chrome it gets sent out.

I recently answered my own question about this. I still don't know if the finish was nickel or chrome but I took the lockplate and hammer and put them in a pint jar, and covered with vinegar. Over the next couple of days I would pick up the jar and swirl the vinegar around a few times. On the third day all the chrome/nickel? was gone leaving a somewhat dark but smooth patina. No sanding no buffing no reverse electroplating.

Are you sure it was nickel? Might also just have been a silvered case hardened finish.

That's what I'm thinkin too,
I'm pretty sure Vinegar ain't gonna dissolve chrome or nickel
:idunno:

I have a small channel lock pliers (ignition tool?) that I carry in my shooting bag and box. It is a very handy tool but I keep it out of sight at 'pc' events. I have been trying to strip it for many years without success, still as shiny as new. Nuttin' including muriatic acid will touch it.
Agree, probably must be specially stripped.

Will either or both sand blast off? Mike D.

Guess I need to check and see. I have some barrel work coming up that will require both sand and glass beads and will be a good chance to see if chrome platting will sand blast off.
I did learn that chrome plating of gun steel requires annealing within one hour of plating to release the hydrogen trapped underneath the plating that cracks the steel thus reducing the strength significantly.
Annealing at 375-400 degrees for three hours withing one hour of plating is supposed to remove the hydrogen entrapment. Mike D.

Technically, heating the metal to that temperature is not annealing. Annealing steel softens it and removes the hardness.

375-430 degrees F is actually a tempering temperature but in this case it is done, as you say, to remove hydrogen embrittlment.

This is only required for parts which are hardened to Rockwell HRC 30 and higher.

A soft, unhardened steel like many black powder guns are made from are not in danger if they are plated unless they have been carburized and hardened.

If a plated steel part has been hardened, speed of the baking is important. The longer the time is between the plating operation and the baking, the greater the chance of damage being done.

This baking is not a speedy process either.
The part will need to bake at least 8 hours for HRC 31-33 up to 22 hours for HRC 49-51.
http://www.waterburyplating.com/newsite/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=16

I bought a chrome plated bag mold a few years back to add to my outfit for show & tell. I have no idea why the manufacturer (Italian) plated it but the price was excellent. It laid on the bench for a while as I thought of ways to strip it including using a solution and DC to reverse the plating operation. One day I looked up, saw an old bottle of Laurel Mountain browning solution and thought "why not". I used a swab to apply a coating every time I happened to think of it and it removed all traces of the plating including the copper base plating over the course of several weeks.

As a former plater, I would suggest taking it to plating Co and having it stripped. I only suggest this because you don't know exactly what steel is underneath. They'll use an alkaline cleaner to take off the chrome (with DC current) and then use sodium cyanide to strip off the nickel and copper. It will NOT damage the steel. I suggest all this since I used to restore antique Harley Davidson parts for their museum.